The 100 Most Important Art Works of the Twentieth Century

Head of Christ by Warner Sallman (1940)

Numbers 21-50:

  1. Jasper Johns, US Flag (Neo-Dada: 1958): three flags in one
  2. Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm (Abstract Expressionist: 1950): orangey brown dribbles.
  3. Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel (Dada: 1913): spokesmodel
  4. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Berlin Street Scene (Expressionist: 1913)
  5. Paul Cezanne, The Large Bathers (Impressionist: 1905): mob of riverside nudes.
  6. Gustav Klimt, Judith and Holofernes (Art Nouveau: 1901): sultry woman holding a severed head.
  7. David Hockney, A Bigger Splash (Pop Art: 1967): backyard pool.
  8. Henri Matisse, Luxe, Calme et Volupte (Fauvist: 1904): seaside nudes on a hot day.
  9. Giorgio de Chirico, Melancholy and Mystery of a Street (Surrealist: 1914): shadow from around the corner.
  10. Meret Oppenheim, Object: Lunch in Fur (Dada: 1936): Fuzzyware®
  11. Joan Miro, Birth of the World (Surrealist: 1925): bike and balloon or sperm in smog.
  12. Max Ernst, The Robing of the Bride (Surrealist: 1940): nude bird ladies.
  13. Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Horse (Futurist: 1914): machine, tendon.
  14. George Bellows, Stag at Sharkey's (American Realist: 1907): sweaty boxers (not the dogs and not the underpants)
  15. Jasper Johns, Target with Four Faces (Neo-Dada: 1955)
  16. Umberto Boccioni, The City Rises (Futurist: 1910): tornadoes in red.
  17. Henri Matisse, The Joy of Life (Fauvist: 1905-06): stop spying on my dreams, dammit!
  18. Mark Rothko, Orange and Yellow (Abstract Expressionist: 1956): orangey yellow splotch.
  19. Roy Lichtenstein, M-Maybe (Pop Art: 1965): worried comic book woman.
  20. Joan Miro, Composition (Surrealist: 1933)
  21. Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych (Pop Art: 1962): movie star worship
  22. Andy Warhol, Campbell's Soup Can (Pop Art: 1962): exactly what it says.
  23. Carlo Carra, Funeral of the Anarchist Galli (Futurist: 1911): vibrating red mob.
  24. Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VII (Der Blaue Reiter: 1913)
  25. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Five Women in the Street (Expressionist: 1913): with feathered hats and fur-trimmed coats.
  26. Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Ambrose Vollard (Cubist: 1909-10): lumpy face
  27. Claude Monet, Waterlilies (Impressionist: 1907)
  28. Henri Rousseau, The Snake Charmer (Primitive Art: 1907): flute-playing satyr in the jungle.
  29. Edward Hopper, Early Sunday Morning (American Realist: 1930): lonely urban storefronts.
  30. Aristide Maillol, The Mediterranean (1902-05), pensive woman, solid.

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Last updated December 2000

Copyright © 2000 Matthew White